Author: David Morrison

How Do you Come Home? (2023)
Banner. Nylon, Appliqué. 150cm x 75cm.

Paddy’s Day in Ballybeg
Riso-printed flip book, 235x185mm.

Typefaces:
Ballinger (Signal Type Foundry)
Bunchló GC, Caschló GC, Deaschló GC,
Dlúthchló GC, & Tromchló GC (Gaelchló).

The most notable difference between the projects, has been the lack of cohesion in the interviews for St. Patrick’s Day in Ballybeg. Unlike its predecessor, these have ranged in content and viewpoint; providing an unwieldy archive that defies simple narrativization. This is perhaps a consequence of the projects broader enquiry, as opposed to the more personal focus of Communion.

In response to this, I am considering the limited nature of banners a literary device for communicating information. A form restricted by spatial concerns and defined by a declarative tone. In designing the publication for the project, I am embracing these restraints and echoing the fragmented nature of the archive in the book’s form.

From Form Studio. (2023) Flip book [Publication]. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/from.form/?hl=en (Accessed: 16 May 2023)

Writing for the project- a means to reflect and contextualise…

Experimenting with the materiality of the banner as a form to distort.

Some banner designs. In addition to the St. Patrick’s day festivities of North America the works also draw visually from a number of Irish sources (archival and otherwise). These include the Book of Kells and Modernist.ie.

Modernist.ie (2023) [Instagram]. 2 May. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/modernist.ie/?hl=en (Accessed: 2 May 2023).

New York Irish History Roundtable. (2015) ‘County Banners at the Parade’ [Facebook] 8 March. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/N.Y.IrishHistoryRoundtable/posts/county-banners-at-the-parade/10153217179501177/ (Accessed: 14 May 2023).

Unknown Author (c. 800 AD) The Book of Kells. [Illuminated Manuscript] Trinity College Digital Collections: Ireland. Available at: https://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/concern/works/hm50tr726?locale=en&page=4 (Accessed: 2 May 2023)

Abstract:

St. Patrick’s Day in Ballybeg (2023) is inspired by the New York City St. Patrick’s Day parade; perhaps the world’s most ostentatious show of Irish identity. The project takes a somewhat détournement-esque approach, adopting banners from the parade and reconfiguring them using snippets from its source archive. These personal reflections, on the state of Ireland and its recent history, contrast the platitudes of pride that usually accompany such pageantry. In doing so, the work questions how Irish national identity is defined and who it is that gets to define it.  Ireland is a country whose diaspora wildly outnumbers its meagre population; with some of its most famous traditions originating in the United States. Taking all of this into account, one may very well question as to where the point of origination for ‘Irish’ culture truly lies.

Photography:

Chin, D. (date unknown) Portfolio. Available at: http://www.omegaphotostudios.com/portfolio(Accessed: 16 May 2023).

Reference:

Debord, G and Wolman G.J. (1981) ‘A User’s Guide to Détournement’, in Situationist International Anthology. Translated from French by K. Knabb. Berkeley, Calif. : Bureau of Public Secrets, pp. 14-21.

For my final project I have chosen to expand my enquiry both in the scale of its material and its investigative scope. Staying focused on cultural traditions and the ways in which these express identity through material means; I am exploring the St. Patrick’s Day parade using the methodology of my previous work. The project is titled
St. Patricks Day in Ballybeg, Ballybeg being an anglicisation of Baile Beag – meaning ‘little town’ in Irish.

Ballybeg is also the setting for many of the writer Brian Friel’s works. Friel’s writing is situated within mid-century Ireland and reflects upon the state of the country at that time. His work shares many concerns with St. Patricks Day in Ballybeg; pondering questions of Irish identity, lived experience on the island, and the Irish migratory experience.

Again the project’s genesis is found in a set of interview questions which are used to compile an archive:

1. Thinking about St. Patrick’s Day and the tradition of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. What comes to mind?

2. Are you aware of the origins of the parade as a tradition?

3. What do you think it reflects in terms of our relationship with the US and the wider world?

4. What kind of Ireland, or Irishness, has traditionally been broadcast internationally by such pageantry? 

5. What, for you, is our relationship to this conception of ourselves? Do we play into it? Do we perform it?